By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
“It’s basically embarrassing that we’re here having to talk about poverty,” said Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.
As a new two-year legislative session begins, Speaker Prieto wants to see a full-scale assault on poverty.
“When we look at the state of New Jersey, 20 percent of the residents in the state of New Jersey own 50 percent of the wealth, which is something we welcome and we applaud them, but we want to make sure those other people can get out of poverty,” he said.
He says the poverty rate has risen here 40 percent since 2008 and is higher than it’s been in 50 years. He’s ordering four Assembly committees to meet next Wednesday to start brainstorming. The Human Services Committee is to focus on existing programs like nutritional assistance. The Housing and Economic Development Committee to focus on affordable housing. The Women and Children Committee to take up women head of household issues like job training and pay equity. And the Transportation Committee to address the mass transit needs of poor people.
“So I think all of these four committees focusing on this, I think this is going to be a key to rebuilding the middle class of the state of New Jersey and doing something about it,” he said.
The federal poverty level is $24,800 a year for a family of four. Prieto says that’s way too low in an expensive state like ours.
“If you think about that, $1,000 let’s say for rent, what do you have left? Less than $12,000 to feed and put clothing on children. They need shoes. Everything,” he said.
Prieto prefers the Legal Services of New Jersey definition of a living wage, which it puts at $67,000 for a family of four. By that measure, one in every three New Jerseyans is poor.
“We’re in the 21st century. We shouldn’t be able to say that 2.8 million residents — over 30 percent — live in poverty. That’s absurd,” he said.
For Prieto, this is personal. He emigrated from Cuba at age 10 with a single mother on assistance.
“For me, these are my friends, my neighbors, people I grew up with. I see how difficult it is. Sometimes we talk about people leaving the state of New Jersey because they can’t afford to live here. The people that I see are not those fleeing the state. They’re the people living paycheck to paycheck trying to survive,” he said.
Prieto was a bit vague about costs, but not about his priority.
“Everybody talks about the middle class. This is how you rebuild it — by investing in the middle class,” he said.